“This tribal district, located about 85 miles west of Islamabad, is best known for its sprawling weapons bazaar. … A local book lover, Raj Muhammad, hopes it becomes known as the home of the Darra Adam Khel Library.” Even the gun merchants have noticed; one of them says the library is “the best thing that happened recently for the people here.” – The New York Times
Author: Matthew Westphal
Can Public Radio And TV Help Bring A Sharply Divided America Together? Should It?
Andrea Smardon: “To answer these questions, I talked with innovative producers who are working on projects that attempt to bridge political and cultural divides. This work is going on across public broadcasting — at local stations, by independent producers and at national organizations such as NPR and StoryCorps. Few journalists view themselves as ‘healers,’ but everyone I talked with agreed that public media does have a unique role to play in this moment.” – Current
Want To Make Orchestral Auditions More Inclusive And Less Discriminatory? This Is How
Writing in the house magazine of Local 802 (the New York City chapter) of the American Federation of Musicians, Shea Scruggs and Weston Sprott both suggest ways to change the mindset around orchestral auditions and offer specific steps to take, such as keeping screens for all audition rounds (including chamber music and ensemble) and eliminating trial weeks. – Allegro (AFM Local 802)
‘125th And Freedom’: A Marathon Dance Piece Stretching Across Harlem’s Main Thoroughfare
“Stopping at sites including the Harriet Tubman Memorial and the former Lenox Lounge — now a Wells Fargo — the 16-part ritual tells the story of a tribe fighting for its freedom with the help of Libra, a time-traveling descendant of Tubman who flies in from the future. As it progresses, the work grows more interactive; at Amsterdam Avenue, for instance, audience members write their hopes on slips of fabric and attach them to a sprawling ‘dream net.'” – The New York Times
‘The Central Park Five’ — Composer Anthony Davis On Writing An Opera With A Quintet In The Title Role
“I had never done an opera with five protagonists before. I had to figure out how to do that. I was fascinated by group singing. Then I began thinking about that period in time, Take 6 and a lot of the boy groups that were popular in that time. I started looking at what I could do with close harmony for five voices.” – The Washington Post
With Everything In The Film Business Changing, Will There Even Be Movies As We Know Them In Ten Years?
“24 major Hollywood figures peer into the future, including: Ava DuVernay (on audiences), Jason Blum (on producing), Octavia Spencer (on acting), Kumail Nanjiani (on comedy), Lena Waithe (on black filmmakers), J.J. Abrams (on blockbusters), Jon M. Chu (on diversity), Jessica Chastain (on dramas), Elizabeth Banks (on female filmmakers), Barry Jenkins (on the Oscars) and Joe and Anthony Russo (on two-hour narratives).” – The New York Times
The 40 Most Powerful People In Comedy For 2019
With categories like The Suits, The Legends, The Auteurs, The Breakouts, The Dynamic Duos, The Arena Fillers, and The Advocates (that’s for the agents and managers), “The Hollywood Reporter polls industry insiders and mines the data to assemble the second annual list of the artists and executives with the clout to make the world laugh.” – The Hollywood Reporter
Casting Movie Stars Or ‘Celebrities’ In Broadway Shows Doesn’t Improve Box Office, Says Study — But Is The Study Accurate?
The researchers found, based on comparing figures for the original star of a production and the first replacement, that casting a theatre star helps ticket sales but casting a movie star or “celebrity” makes no difference. Howard Sherman, noting that this is “contrary to conventional wisdom and anecdotal evidence,” points out the study’s big flaw: who was put in which category. – The Stage
In The Visual Arts, Having A Master’s Degree Will Not Make A Big Difference In Your Salary: Study
“According to the first POWarts Salary Survey, a report on wages and various sectors of the art industry conducted by the Professional Organization for Women in the Arts, … the median salary for respondents with a bachelor’s degree was $60,000. By contrast, the median for respondents with a master’s degree was $62,000 — just $2,000 more. (The median for respondents with a doctorate degree was $73,500.)” – ARTnews
Meet One Of The Curators Who Started That Spreadsheet Of Art Museum Salaries
“I’m a design curator, so sometimes the most simple, economical, and elegant way to do something is the most effective,” says Michelle Millar Fisher of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, who sees the crowdsourced spreadsheet as a way to fight “the culture of silence and fear” in the museum world. “[You can] literally see collegiality and solidarity appearing cell by cell in the sheet.” – The Philadelphia Inquirer